Simple Projects Are The Best

I thought I would share two little projects I did a while back.  Of course it should be stated that Pinterest once again was my inspiration.  Pinterest is the worst kind of addiction.  I am either pinning things I can't afford and can only dream of OR I am pinning things that I have every intention of trying, but rarely ACTUALLY do!!

Except these two projects!!

I am always looking for ways to make life with three kids easier and this little basket project was one of those ways.  I will say it took me a little longer than I had thought it would to find 3 matching baskets that were the perfect size for my stairs.  Once I did though, it was easy peezy to finish.  I used scrap paper I had and some rub-ons to create the name tags and I borrowed my moms laminating machine to keep them nice and pretty!!  When the kids pick up around the house downstairs they can put their things in the basket and when the basket is full...it is easy to carry everything up and put away!!

And the frame...

Well thanks again to Pinterest and Photoshop I now have this fun piece with all the important dates in our family!!  Sometimes words and numbers are much more fun than an actual picture!  It's a talking piece when people see it and then see that Thomas' birthday falls before our wedding date!!

Yep...

He came first!!!

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Cameo

Just because I have not posted to this blog in like forever...

Does not mean I have not been crafty lately!!  Actually quite the opposite!!

If I haven't mentioned it I have the best mom ever...for many reasons, but one of them being that she is great at giving me the shove gentle nudge that I need to be crafty.  Last Christmas Santa Claus my parents bought me a Silhouette Cameo.  If for some reason you are not familiar with this amazing machine...it is a cutting system that works along with you computer.  I have officially become obsessed!! 

So...

When we decided we are taking the kids to Disneyland for a big family vacation I started creating!!  I want the kids to do as little complaining as humanly possible for little kids, so I decided a game might help with that.

I have seen different versions of travel bingo, but I wasn't too enamored by anything I have seen, so I decided to create my own with my Cameo!!

And Voila...A quick zip through the laminating machine (courtesy of my mom) and we have a game!!

And because I am working towards the "Mom of the Year" award...

I continued creating!

I decided that their first trip to Disneyland would not be complete without an Autograph book!!  Again I was not impressed with the boring ones you can buy, so I created my own.  I got some inspiration via Pinterest which led me to Craft-O-Maniac.  I absolutely loved the Mickey Head, so I created my own using my Cameo.  I decided to make different ones for each of the kids and because I was having so much fun I made them each two.

So...what do you think??  My kids think I am pretty great, but I guess they might be a little bias!!

I have quite a few more projects to share, so consider my crafty blog....BACK!!!!

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Thank you PINTEREST!!

Again I come to you with something a saw on Pinterest and HAD to do myself!!

Although I live in AZ and for almost nine months out of the year boots and scarves are not a necessity...my closet says otherwise.

I love me some boots and I love me a good scarf.

Problem though...

How to store all those beautiful scarves I have??

Well this is how they usually look...

A basket full!! Which usually causes me to forget what I have or the ones that can be are super wrinkled!! Have I told you I despise the iron?? Well I do!

Anyhoo...

A quick trip to the Dollar Store for shower curtain rings and a hanger from my closet!!

And...

VOILA!!

All of my scarves hung nicely in my closet!!

This project literally cost me $1.00!!

I love the cost, but even more I love that all of my scarves are nicely organized in my closet. I gained a basket out of reorganizing as well, so that was a bonus!

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So You Think You Can Sew?

I am not sure when it happened, but it did! I have stepped up my game with regards to sewing. I blame it on Pinterest, but then again it is easy to blame a lot of things on Pinterest lately.

Anyway...

I decided a while ago that I wanted to try making some things for when the baby came. OK fine I wanted to make burp cloths. These burp cloths to be exact!! Maybe something else if that actually panned out, but for now...just the cloths.

Well as luck would have it my big BLACK FRIDAY purchase...

FLANNEL FABRIC for $1.49yd. Because it was a slight afterthought I did not get in line early and because I was among 200 other women wanting this fabric...well it was slim pickins. I some prints that I liked and a few that were not baby specific, but loved all the same. I waited in line and roughly 20yds later (I got a little carried away) I was ready to start sewing.

I honestly had no idea how little fabric it would take for the pattern I had chosen, so needless to say I will have all the burp cloths I could ever need!!

I might have gone a little overboard on pictures, but I really am proud that I have accomplished what I set out to do. I secretly hope this is only the start of my sewing ventures.

Oh and to get warmed up before I tackled the cloths I whipped up 10 pairs of leg warmers. Of course my Taylor picked the ones she wanted and the rest will go on ETSY!!

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My First Halloween Party!!

I have always wanted to throw a Halloween party, but for some reason or another every year comes and goes and...no party.

Well, not this year. I decided to have one and I did. I think my mom would agree with me that we planned and crafted for two months for a party that lasted two hours. And even though there was food that I forgot to put out and games that we didn't even play...all 18 of my little spooky kids had fun. And that is all that matters.

I thought I would share the few (and I mean these were literally the only ones I took) pictures from our hard work.

My tablescape...full of yummy, festive food.

And my "Trick or Treat" table...full of goodies for all of my guests to leave with.

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My {Attempt} at a Festive Wreath

First of all can I just say that this might have been the project where I finally realized that NOTHING is as simple as it seems in my head. My inspiration for this wreath came from where else...PINTEREST! I saw a wreath made with tulle and thought well I think can do that...and I have a lot of black tulle that I have no plans for just collecting dust in my craft room. Well, three trips to Hobby Lobby later and scraping plans A...B...and...C, I finally finished my Halloween wreath.

The most hilarious part about this project is I seriously thought it was going to be SUPER cheap. Let's just say that I greatly underestimated how much tulle it takes to cover a wreath. I stopped counting when I reached 150 yards. I wasn't liking any of the ideas I had so far. I decided tonight that come hell or high water I was finishing this wreath or it was going in the "craft gone wrong" pile.

I used $$Dollar Store cotton spider web over the tulle and used small black plastic spiders as embellishments. My wonderful mom made me the bow which ended up being the final inspiration of the theme. All things considered I am happy with the final product. Tomorrow I will find an actual home for it.

What do you think?

Oh and the other thing I realized tonight (I really didn't just realize this, but tonight it is worth mentioning)...my mom is OOBER Talented. She sees something and BAM...she recreates it. She really is all the inspiration a girl could need.

Just go check out her blog Fresh Cut Flours if you don't believe me.


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Subway Art

I have been playing around on photoshop lately, but trying my hand at little projects rather than editing photos.

I have been decorating for Halloween all week and trying to add something more each day. It is only now that I appreciate my old house that was only 1600 sq ft and all one level. Decorating 2400 is turning out to be a lot more difficult.

Anyway...

I whipped up a little subway art for a picture frame that I have and thought I would share.

I am happy with how it turned out and am thinking it will look a lot more festive than the picture I currently have on display.

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Teaching This Girl {NEW} Tricks

I am not even going to attempt to tell you where I have been for months. I have no good excuses, but I am back and that is all that matters.

So 5 Christmas' ago...my mom bought me a sewing machine!! If there is one person that without a doubt always has confidence in me it is my mom, she seems to think I can do everything she does! I don't always agree, but anyhoo...

A couple years after getting the sewing machine I finally opened the box. My mom came over and taught me how to use it.

Fast Forward a few years and again the dust had collected and I had forgotten how to use the machine.

Well, I don't plan on forgetting this time. In fact I am excited to learn more.

Last year my mom started making leg warmers for Taylor, but kept telling me that I could do it. And now I can!!

Here are a few that we made this week...

Can you tell which ones I did??

I sure hope not!! I would like think I was an A+ student. Check out my Etsy shop for these and lots more prints.

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A Full Shop

I spent part of my weekend doing ETSY shop clean-up.

And wouldn't you know it....I made some sales after doing so. People have offered tips in blogland that to have a successful etsy shop you must have LOTS of product...and my wonderful mom has always told me to list OFTEN.

Well...since I have a craft room filled with hair clips...all I really had to do was take pictures and start listing.

Thought I would share a little of my latest...

Of course you can see lots more in my shop!!

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Easy Crayon Copycat...

While perusing one of my favorite bargain blogs MomsbyHeart I found this post and had to try it.

Any mom of toddlers has a bin, box or bucket full of crayons. So...any mom with said bin, box or bucket knows that there are probably a bunch of broken ones.

I followed the quick simple steps and VOILA...

I had 36 new crayons that the kids thought were cool. They are not your standard crayon, but the kids were impressed and immediately wanted to color!! Mission Accomplished!!

Note...if I did it again I would make them bigger. I only had small foil muffin tins, but I am pretty positive that the dollar store would have a bigger size!!

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Teacher Appreciation....

Although she isn't my teacher....I am SOOOO appreciative of the work that Thomas' pre-school teacher does none the less.

I like any excuse to venture into my craft room and when I find a project that has a due date...I can usually get some UNINTERRUPTED time. BONUS!!

I found the cutest school themed paper pack at Ross (I have decided they pretty much have everything) for $5.00. I could not pass up over 30 sheets of scrapbook paper for that price...especially when it was so cute.

I decided to make a card for Thomas to sign...the one pictured at the top...but didn't stop there. I decided to make a set of note cards and a set of regular cards. I am putting together a little appreciation basket for her and you can see the other goodies here.

I sure hope she likes her goodies!!

Linking too....

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An ABC Labor of Love {With A Little Help}

So back in February my mom sent me a link (she does this often) of a something she thought I might like...

Like most of the links she sends me, I liked LOVED it! This was the link she sent me...Girl In Air

And this is what I fell in LOVE with...An Alphabet Wall!

Oh and this one...from A Time For Everything

Oh and how about this one from ohdeedoh

Well, I just had to do this!

I started collecting letters and getting creative. I purchased quite a few of my letters at thrift stores and what I couldn't find I headed to JoAnn Fabrics.

And two months later and with some help from my mom...I am finally finished.

I thought this would be perfect for the wall in what is now my kids' play/TV room.

What do you think?

Some of the letters I painted, some I covered with fun scrapbook paper, I even covered one completely with bling.  It really was a fun project and my hubby was actually happy to help me put them all up on the wall.

Here are a few of my favorites...

The 'U' I covered with white silk flowers and then used whites buttons for each of the flower centers.

The 'X' was my moms idea and she was even kind enough to paint the scissors for me.  She purchased the scissors in the unfinished wood section of Hobby Lobby.

The 'J' I painted white and used some colorful fibers I had and just wrapped them around. I had thought I would wrap the entire J, but liked the way it looked at this point so I stopped.

I loved this project and it is definitely a conversation piece!! If you have kids and a blank wall that needs something...you should do this!!  Heck...you don't really even need the kids...just the blank wall!

I'm linking too....

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